What works and make it better
This year we received a generous gift to pilot a Sustainable Livelihood Project. The first step was to identify two partners with the strongest entrepreneurial initiatives.
For the first round, we chose ANADESA for their Tourism Project and Pueblo a Pueblo for their Beekeeping Project.
With the accompaniment of Darwin Vasquez, Natik's Sustainable Livelihood project coordinator in Santiago, the groups affirmed their strongest initiatives, evaluated their advances, and prioritized the steps for moving forward.
In addition to Darwin's accompaniment, the projects are benefitting from strategic alliances with the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism, the Guatemalan Economic Ministry, and the Universidad Earth.
Photo: Workshop with ANADESA and PaP
ANADESA's Tourism Project has been organizing guided tours, group meal service, classes in cooking and beadwork, and other activities for Mennonite Church visitors for many years. This project is well developed and despite being relatively passive from the marketing perspective, the income has been substancial. Through analysis and reflection, they realized they can expand this project through marketing and promotion.
Pueblo a Pueblo's Beekeeping Project has been training beekeepers in the greater Santiago area for over a decade. The team is well-versed on all aspects of production, but identified the need for developing additional local points of sale for the many products related to beekeeping, such as honey, wax, pollen, and propolis --- to increase market demand on behalf of the producers. Additionally, they can facilitate the production and sale of the many tools needed for beekeeping, such as stamped wax, boxes, frames, and extractors.
Darwin's Testimony: His greatest joy has been working with teams that welcome the extra work involved in building up their entrepreneurial ventures. Their motivation is to fully engage in learning opportunities designed to help them increase their capacity to generate local incomes benefitting the organization and the community.
